“My cousin and I couldn’t recognise each other. When you’re stripped of looks and personality, you aren’t yourself anymore. You lose hope.”
Holocaust survivor Mala Tribech was describing the moment her 14-year-old self, forced into a striped uniform and head newly shaven, entered the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
“People there were like skeletons, shuffling along aimlessly. There were piles of decaying, naked corpses.”
Five months later, Allied victory meant liberation. After such nightmarish conditions, one of the first things that made the Pole feel “human again” was an unlikely camp delivery – lipstick.
